The Art of Subtly
by Yes-4-Yuffentine
Summary: Robin's friends intend to irk Maria. Maria intends to teach them a lesson. Robin is mostly caught in the crossfire.


Maria Merryweather was not in the best of moods. She'd agreed to meet Robin here, at the stream, at midday, and it was now _well_ past that time.

Where was he? Didn't he know she had better things to do than wait around for him all day? There were plenty of injured animals that needed her, who would probably appreciate her efforts more, but no, here she was, wasting her time waiting to tend _his_ injuries. Had he forgotten? She doubted it, not in light of the strict instructions she'd given him. But then he probably wasn't following them anyway, and definitely not the ones involving _resting_ his arm. And that was precisely why she had insisted on regularly checking his injury in the first place, since he would very probably end up ripping out her neat stitches.

Maria was few minutes away from giving up and leaving when she finally heard voices. Getting up from the rock she was sat on, she headed a short distance through the trees and into a clearing.

"Oh no, you take your time," She called out irritably to the group approaching from the other side, realising now why it must had taken Robin so long to arrive, "It's not like _I_ have anything better to do with my time…"

This was met by a good deal of sniggering from his friends. Robin at least had the good grace to look partly apologetic, but looked mostly still annoyed by the presence of Henry, Richard and David who had clearly accompanied him, uninvited, for reasons of their own.

"You'll have to forgive him princess, he had a bit of a late night see," Henry told her with an irrepressible grin when he reached her. Maria folded her arms, eyebrows raised in invitation to go on, but otherwise unimpressed with this attempt to inspire her interest.

"There's been some suspicious activity down by the coast you see, so we were investigating last night. There's a lass down in the village who had a brother who might know something about it. Oh, _what_ was her name?"

It was the most unconvincing pretence of ignorance Maria had ever witnessed and she had to fight the very strong urge to roll her eyes.

"Molly," David supplied, the knowledgeable smirk playing around the corner of his lips full indication that he knew exactly where the story was going, "Molly Fawcett,"

"Ah yes, Molly Fawcett," Henry nodded with barely concealed smugness, "Do you know her?"

"I know _of_ her, yes," Maria answered, trying not to let any stiffness creep into her tone. Robin, she noticed, was glaring at Henry, and probably only resisting an urge of his own to sock his friend in the stomach because physical exertion of that sort was one of the many things Maria had forbidden him from. And evidently he judged disobeying her instructions directly in front of her to be more dangerous than whatever it was his friends were up to. _As he should_, she thought with some satisfaction.

"Yes, well, who hasn't heard of _Magnificent_ _Molly_ I suppose?" Henry asked, "Anyway, _Robin_, being the De Noir heir and all-"

"And the most charming of us all-" David broke in.

"And injured-" Richard added.

"-Took it upon himself to..._persuade_ her to tell him if she knew anything about it," The added emphasis Henry spoke with and the smirk practically splitting his face in two made it hard for Maria to miss the implication.

"Turns out she did and he had her singing like a bird…" David trailed off suggestively, evidently just in case she had missed it.

"How very..._selfless_ of him," Maria remained determined to act coolly indifferent. She knew exactly what they wanted, that they were trying to induce some sort of reaction from her. "After all, I'm sure you were all interrogating your _own_ sources. I know how seriously you all take your…responsibilities,"

When the three of them simply exchanged looks of silent laughter, she fought the temptation to roll her eyes again. Did they think she was blind to their artless baiting? No, she knew that they knew she wasn't, which was rather the point to all this she supposed. The art of subtly had probably always been beyond them.

It wasn't beyond her however.

She unfolded her arms, and drew all five foot four of herself upright. "Unfortunately, I'm running short of time, so I'll have to hear about what I'm sure was a _historic_ evening for you all another time," She looked pointedly at Robin, who, with a last glare at his friends, got the message and followed after her through the trees, the snickering of Henry, David and Richard fading behind them.

The walk was short and Maria didn't say a word to Robin for its duration. By the time they reached the stream, and he started shrugging out of his leather jacket, the tension and apprehension was practically rolling off of him.

"You'll need to take that off too," She eventually said, nodding at his dark shirt.

He removed his hat and unwound his feathered scarf. "Maria, it's not like they making it out-" He started, pulling his shirt over his head.

"I'm sure it's none of my business Robin," Maria replied in light and unconcerned tone, pushing him down onto the stone she not so long ago been sitting herself. Manoeuvring round to his side, she carefully started unwrapping the grubby bandage from around his upper arm.

He didn't look particularly reassured by this response. "Well, I still want you to know, it was nothing... inappropriate. It's true she has a bit of a soft spot for me, so it was logical for me to talk to her. And that was it really, all I had to do was talk to her, flatter her a bit..." He trailed off, her lack of reaction still clearly unnerving him.

She was partly too busy examining the neatly stitched gash on his upper arm, sustained a week ago, to reply. It was healing nicely, and to her surprise, all her stitches were still intact, meaning he must have been following her instructions better than she'd imagined. When she'd ordered him to _take things easy_ she hadn't expected him to actually listen to her…

So she supposed she should be glad that he had swapped hauling heavy logs about on his shoulders for flirting with woman of easy virtue. She abruptly straightened up.

"I understand Robin, you have responsibilities," She finally answered, still in that same neutral tone. Without looking at him, she extracted a carefully wrapped, clean bandage and fresh poultice from her satchel. "It's your duty to keep your home and the valley safe. By whatever means necessary," She set the end of the bandage and the poultice over his injury, "Hold this,"

Robin hurriedly obeyed, holding it in place so she could securely re-wrap the wound. "Although," She continued, "It is perhaps cruel to lead someone one on if you have no intention of pursuing them..."

"Of course I don't intend to pursue her," He cut in incredulously. She bit her lip to contain her amusement, tying off the end of the bandage.

"Honestly Robin. Loosen up," She finally looked up and met his uneasy gaze, her voice bemused and teasing, "What do you take me for?"

Robin looked back uncertainly at her, clearly trying to gauge her mood and whether to trust the smile on her face. She started repacking her satchel, the unruly red curls escaped from her braid obscuring some of her face as she did so.

"After all, it's not as if there's any promise between us... You're free to do whatever you want," She paused and let out a sigh, "I certainly can't. You know what my uncle is like, he won't even _consider_ letting anyone court me until I'm well over eighteen. And marriage? Well as far as he's concerned, the older the better. I'll be lucky if he only makes me wait until I'm twenty one and not thirty. He fully intends to make Wrolf my chaperone to make sure and no-one so much as _touches_ me..."

Maria straightened up again. She could see Robin watching her out of the corner of her eye, attention riveted on her. She circled slowly around, her voice turning hesitant and wistful. "But sometimes..._sometimes_ I can't help but think...about what it must be like... how it _thrilling_ it would be..." She trailed off, standing directly behind him now, the fabric of her dress brushing the bare skin of his back. He had turned his head, following her movement until he could no longer see her, but was still listening raptly to her every word.

"I means its four years until I'm twenty one..." She mused, catching sight of a few stray leaves caught in his hair and gently pulling them out, "That's such a long time, to go without so much as a _single touch_…" The leaves brushed the outside of his arms as they fluttered to the ground and Maria wound one of her hands into his thick curls in their place, "I mean, what could be _wrong_ about something just as small as that? Surely it couldn't be, could it, Robin?"

"No Princess..." He answered, sounding dazed. She could see his chest rising and falling as his breathing became deeper and he unconsciously leaned his head back into her touch.

"No, it can't..." Maria whispered, skimming her fingertips ever so lightly down his neck, across the top of his broad shoulder and watching his well-defined abdomen tense at her feather light touch, "So perhaps I will ask you one thing Robin..."

"Anything," His voice was caught halfway between a breath and a groan as his eyes fluttered shut.

"Next time you get injured…" She murmured, feeling him shudder as her lips brushed his ear, his shoulders taut with anticipation "…Ask _Magnificent Molly_ to tend to it for you,"

And then, before her words could be fully processed by his very distracted mind, she swept up her satchel and departed swiftly back through the trees.

Henry, David and Richard were all lazing about on the forest floor, their back against the trees as she re-emerged back into the clearing. It was Richard who noticed her first.

"Princess?" He asked with some surprise, sitting up and looking about in confusion for Robin.

"You three," She told them as she passed by with some amount of satisfaction "Have a lot to learn,"

They cast confused looks at each other. "What do you me-" Henry started, staring after her. But his question was answered before he'd even had chance to finish it.

"Maria!" The shout of her name was angry, pleading and urgent all at once and Robin exploded through the treeline. Tripping over his friends, he stumbled to a halt. Henry, David and Richard, after one startled moment taking in his flushed and dishevelled appearance, all burst into raucous laughter.

"Where's the fire Robin?"

"Too much for you is she? We always said the Moon Princess was beyond you!"

"You wouldn't get your shirt off for Molly!"

Trapped by them and their jeering, Robin was forced to take it all. Maria on the other hand, was safely on the other side of the clearing. She condescended to pause to look back at them all, raising her eyebrows imperiously. Between their taunts, Henry Richard and David were sending appreciative and admiring looks at her. This golden opportunity to tease and torment their friend was, after all, in its entirety owed to her, and far superior to their frankly pitiful and unimaginative attempt earlier. Oh, yes she'd taught them once again that _she_ was the uncontested power in these parts. And none of them could get the better of her.

And as for Robin... She let her eyes rove up his still shirtless figure. If his friends wanted to get the better of _him_, _she _would show them how it was done. For he was at _her_ mercy, not theirs, and certainly not Magnificent Molly Fawcett's. She was the Moon Princess, and Robin De Noir was hers. He had been since the moment she'd caught him in the woods that fateful day. And while she could handle her uncle just as well as she could handle the De Noirs, even if it was true that he'd make her wait, until she really was thirty, _wait Robin would_. She could tell that from barely concealed frustration still burning in his eyes, and the adoration smouldering behind it, _all of it for her_.

"Well, until next time boys…" She called out, turning to leave. _Yes_, she thought, with a smirk of her own this time, she'd taught them _all_ a valuable lesson today.

* * *

_So I finally finished this! Its actually one of the earliest ideas I had and outlined, but I only got round to fleshing it out a few weeks ago, and then I just couldn't get the ending right...but I'm quite happy with how it's turned out I think. As always, its set a few years after the film, so Maria is aged up. I work on the basis that she's 13-going-on-14 in the film, and Robin is probably at least three years older. I envisage her to be at least 17-close-to-18 in this, given the seductive undertone. Relatively plot-less again, was always meant to be a shorter oneshot based on a specific idea. I find these easier to write as I don't have to go into a lot of back story, if any. Integrating enough back story to justify the plot is one of the things that's slowing me down on other stuff. But its pretty much universal headcanon that after the film Robin and Maria explore the forest and their relationship develops from there, right?_

_Sassy Maria putting Robin's friends in their place is another personal headcanon. I've used it quite a lot in the notes I have for other things, so I hope that's something people like! I only relatively recently realised that Robin's three Merry Men actually do have names. I've used them here, but in other stuff I've made them up and I probably won't always change them, depending on how many mentions they've already got._

_I hope you enjoyed this, and, as ever, your thought, comments and criticism are very welcome!_


End file.
